RUSSELLVILLE — The Arkansas Tech football team overcame a tremendous amount of adversity in their season-opening game at home against Oklahoma Baptist on Thursday night at Simmons Bank Field at Thone Stadium, and ultimately came out on top 44-41 in overtime.
The win in the season-opener is the first for the Wonder Boys since 2017 and avenged a tough season-opening loss on the road at Oklahoma Baptist a year ago as Tech fell to the Bison by two points, 23-21.
On Thursday, the Wonder Boys displayed a hard-nosed rushing attack that netted 245 yards on the ground and were complimented with an efficient passing game that went for 234 yards on 17-of-26 passing to give the Wonder Boys 479 yards of total offense.
Spearheading much of the offense was new signal-caller Ethan Forrester. The junior transfer from Fort Hays State threw for 197 yards and two touchdowns on 15-of-18 passing while also adding 78 yards rushing on eight carries. Joining Forrester on the offensive attack were running backs Deuce Wise and Luke Gall. The two combined for 190 rushing yards with Wise totaling 99 and Gall with 91. Gall also had two rushing scores in his Wonder Boys debut.
With all of the positive offense that the Wonder Boys generated, the game ultimately came down to special teams down the stretch.
Trailing by three points with 11:40 to go in the fourth quarter, the Wonder Boys engineered a six-play, 65-yard touchdown drive to take the lead. That drive was capped off with a Jordan Edington one-yard plunge, giving Edington 19 career rushing touchdowns as a Wonder Boy.
On the ensuing Oklahoma Baptist drive, the Wonder Boys forced a critical turnover as CJ Palmer picked off OKB's Kenny Rosenthal at the Tech 32-yardline and returned the ball 30 yards to the OKB 38-yardline.
Now with the ball and a chance to increase their four-point lead, the Wonder Boys' drive stalled in five plays as they were only able to advance the ball to the OKB 29-yardline. Faced with a fourth-and-11, the Wonder Boys elected to try a 47-yard field goal and taking the try was transfer Christopher Baldazo, who had not appeared in the game to that point.
Baldazo was clutch and drilled the long kick to put the Wonder Boys up by seven, 41-34, with 4:14 left in the fourth quarter.
Not long after that big kick, the Wonder Boys' defense came up clutch on their end forcing another turnover, this time it was Palmer forcing a fumble to give the ball back to Tech with just under three minutes to play.
Now, the Wonder Boys were in clock draining mode and were able to get the game clock to just under a minute before having to punt the ball away to Oklahoma Baptist, who exhausted all of their three timeouts during that drive.
Unfortunately, major adversity struck the Wonder Boys on that punt attempt as an errant snap sent the ball back near the Tech endzone where punter Logan Tymeson recovered the ball and was ultimately taken to the ground in the endzone, but he was ruled down at the Tech one-yardline, potentially giving the Bison a golden opportunity to tie the score on a touchdown and successful extra point.
Before that could transpire, however, the challenge flag was thrown by the Wonder Boys challenging the spot of the tackle in hopes of it being overturned into a safety. Unfortunately, however, the challenge was not able to reviewed due to an ill-timed glitch in the replay system.
Now with the ball on the Tech one-yardline, Oklahoma Baptist needed one play to punch it in and after a successful extra point, the game was tied at 41-all with now 46 seconds left.
The Wonder Boys would get the ball back and started their final drive of regulation at their own 25-yardline. Tech was unable to move the ball much down the field, and were forced to punt the ball once more to Oklahoma Baptist. This time, nothing went awry on the punt and Tymeson was able to boot the ball 47 yards to the OKB 11-yardline.
With just 11 seconds left in regulation, the Bison elected to kneel to send the game to overtime.
On the coin toss, the Wonder Boys won the toss and elected to play defense first.
That proved to be a great call as the Wonder Boys forced the Bison to go three-and-out and settle for a 37-yard field goal. That try was missed wide right, opening it up for the Wonder Boys to win the game on any kind of score on their ensuing possession.
On that drive, the Wonder Boys were able to pick up a first down and got the ball down to the OKB 10-yardline to set up a potential game-winning field goal from 28 yards away. With the game on the line, on came Baldazo and the Kilgore, Texas native became the hero as he drilled the try, giving the Wonder Boys a thrilling 44-41 win overtime.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare to hit the road next weekend as they will take on Southern Nazarene on Saturday, September 14. Kickoff from Bethany, Okla. is scheduled for 6 p.m.
